Machine for applying flowing material to articles



Sept. 3, 1957 A. SCHMIDT MACHINE FOR APPLYING FLOWING MATERIAL T0 ARTICLES Filed Nov. 16, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY Sept. 3, 1957 A. SCHMIDT 2,804,888

MACHINE FOR APPLYING F LOWING MATERIAL TO ARTICLES Filed Nov. 16, 1954 4 Shee ts-Sheet 2 I N AL F250 JC X9 Ema/2:50

{I ORNEY Sept. 3, 1957 5 2,804,888

MACHINE FOR APPLYING FLOWING MATERIAL T0 ARTICLES Filed NOV. 16. 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTO R N EY Sept. 3, 1957 T 2,804,888

MACHINE FOR APPLYING FLOWING MATERIAL T0 ARTICLES Filed Nov. 16. 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 4,

MACHINE FOR APPLYING FLOWING MATERIAL T ARTICLES Alfred Schmidt, deceased, late of Weehawken, N. J., by Hudson Trust Company, Union City, and Eiieen Schmidt, Weehawken, N. 1., executors Application November 16, 1954, Serial No. 469,148

3 Claims. (Cl. 141-159) This invention relates to a machine for applying a flowing material to the top of an article, as, for example, applying sealing material to the top of a battery. The invention is useful in the manufacture of batteries as illustrated in the drawings as one of an infinite variety of uses to which the invention may be put; it will be understood that the invention is not to be deemed limited thereto, being equally applicable to any manufacturing procedure wherein it is desirable to apply a flowing material to the top of an article.

The invention consists of novel steps and features of construction illustrated in the drawings, and more particularly described below.

These and other advantageous objects, which will appear from the drawings and from the description hereinafter, are'accomplished by the structure of my invention, of which an embodiment is illustrated in the drawings. It will be apparent, from a consideration of said rawings and the following description, that the invention may be embodied in other forms suggested thereby, and such other forms as come within the scope of the appended claims are to be considered within the scope and purview of the instant invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of one form of reservoir for the flowing material and associated parts, which may be used in carrying out the invention,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view of an article lift bar station of the machine,

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view thereof,

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary detailed vertical sectional view of a portion of the lift bar mechanism of the machine,

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of a modified form thereof,

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary top plan view of the machine, showing certain details of the article lift station and article discharge station of the machine,

Fig. 7 is the fragmentary top plan view of a further form of article ejecting station of the machine,

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary prospective view of the station of said machine at which a latch means is provided to resist opening of the reservoir discharge aperture 43 until such latch means is disengaged by the location of an article in a predetermined station of the machine,

Fig. 8a is a fragmentary perspective View of a form of scraper for scraping the flowing material which may have overfiowed the article and adhered to the rotor, and

Fig. 9 is a schematic top plan view of the article lift station of the machine (dotted) the (wax) station for applying the flowing material to articles, and the (flame seal) station for applying a flame to the top of the article to insure a uniform flow of material thereon.

The drawings illustrate a device embodying the invention comprising a machine 10 which may be mounted on any suitable support or housing, said machine including a rotor plate 11 which may be rotated by suitable means (not shown) driven by shaft 27 for example in an intermittent fashion, as by a suitable Geneva or other drive Patented Sept. 3, 1957 ice means, so as to advance the articles 12 positionedpn said plate in a station-to-station fashion, with a suflicient pause at each station to provide the desired operation.

Lift station 16 The articles 12 to be operated on are initially positioned in the machine in any desired or convenient manner, as for example, by depositing said articles on a suitable track 13 preferably inclined and provided with side rails 14, 15 to guide said articles, whereby said articles will be gravity-fed toward the first station of the machine, namely, battery article lift station 16 (Figs. 2-6) wherein housing 17 is provided; an article lift bar 18 is pivotally mounted in housing 17 as at 19. The said article lift bar 18 is normally urged downwardly so as to be disposed essentially horizontally in the housing 17 by suitable spring means 20 or the like connected at opposite ends 21, 22 to the housing and the lift bar, The upper face of the article lift bar is preferably provided with a recess preferably conformed to the cross sectional configuration of articles 12 and means such as shown in Fig. 2 at 24 are provided, synchronized with the rotation of the plate 11 (as by eccentrically connecting an arm 26 with the means 27 for rotation of the plate 11) to pivot the lift bar toward the plate periodically in timed sequence with the rotation of the plate 11 so as to dispose the articles in article positioning means on said plate. Said article positioning means may comprise circumferential recesses in said plate (Figs. 3 and 8) into which the articles are deposited at the station 16 of the machine upon elevation of the lift bar 18 by the mechanism 24. By this means a plunger 28 is vertically reciprocated as indicated by the arrow 29 (Fig. 2). Plunger 28 has fixed to the upper end thereof a block 31 or the like (Fig. 4) which may be reciprocated in a suit able guideway 31 in the housing 17. It will be apparent that the lift bar18 is normally urged downwardly to its horizontal inoperative position by the spring 26) and will be intermittently elevated by the action of the block responsive to the rotation of the shaft 27, so that serially that particular article 12 which is deposited on the upper recessed part of the lift bar 18 will be rotated (dotted lines, Fig. 4) and deposited into the circumferential recess 25 of the plate 11.

During that operation the next article 12, which is gravity urged toward the lift station 16, abuts the side of the lift bar so that upon the return of the lift bar to its horizontal position, said next article drops into the recess at the top of the lift bar; the operation mentioned is repeated at each cycle of operation. By this means, the articles 12 may be fed seriatim into the circumferential recesses 25 of the plate 11. If desired, the lift bar may be provided with a number of recesses so as to receive several articles 12 for deposit in recesses 25a (Fig. 5).

A bracket 32 (Figs. 1 and 3) may be provided in advance of the lift housing 17 on the track 13 to further guide the articles 12 toward the lift station 16 of the machine. In Figs. 2 and 3 the means to position the articles on the plate 11 are shown to comprise verticallyaligned recesses 25in individual frames 33 mounted on plate 11. Instead of that arrangement, however, any other suitable means may be used for the purpose; for example, as shown in Fig. 8, the circumferential recesses 25 of the plate 11 may be defined in a pair of plates 11a, 11b of corresponding outline secured together in spaced relation so as to define the vertically spaced circumferential recesses 25 for the purpose mentioned.

Material application station The next station 40 of the machine is preferably that at which the flowing material is applied to the top of the T 3 article. The articles 12 deposited in the circumferential recesses of plate 11 would next be advanced to station on rotation of plate 11 in the direction R as shown in Fig-9, At the material application station 40 er the machine; a flowing material (41, Fig. l) is provided in a reservoir 42 "disposed in spaced relation to the" plate 11 and discharge nozzle 43, the latter having a discharge aperture 43 disposed in line with the path of rotation of the articles 12 on plate 11. The arrangement is such that as each article is rotated into registry with the aperture 43, said aperture is uncovered, permitting the material to flow therethrough and onto the top of the article until a sufiicient quantity has been so deposited onto said article; then the aperture 43 is closed, and the article advanced to the next station. Pursuant to the invention, means are provided for opening the aperture 43 and permitting the flow of material 41 onto the top of the article and then cutting the same off in predetermined timed sequence to the station-to-station intermittent rotation of the plate 11. Said intermittent opening and closing of the discharge aperture 43 of the reservoir may be effected by a plunger 44 adapted to seat in and close the opening 45 at the bottom of reservoir 42 through which the material 41 may flow into discharge nozzle 43. Said plunger is intermittently vertically reciprocated by connecting the same as at 46 to one end of a lever 47 fulcrumed as at 48 on a part 42 affixed to said reservoir 42.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that on pivotal movement of lever 47 in the direction 49 (Fig. l) the plunger 44 may be lifted clear of the opening 45 responsive, for example, to reciprocation of a rod 59 connected as at 51 to the second end of lever 47. Suitable means may be provided for normally urging the rod upwardly in a direction opposite the direction 49, to seat the rod 44 in opening 45 as, for example, a spring 52 hearing at one end on the machine 10 and at the other end against a collar 56a fixed to rod 50. The lower end of the rod 50 may be connected by suitable cam or other means to the shaft 27 so that the rod 50 moved intermittently to alternately open and close aperture 43 for the flowing material 41 with timed pauses synchronized with the stationto-station rotation of the plate 11.

Suitable latch means may be provided to assure the opening of the aperture 43 only on the proper functioning of the machine. Said means may comprise a latch mechanism generally indicated at 55 in Fig. 8, comprising essentially a latch finger 56 urged by suitable means such as a spring 57 into a position of abutting contact with the upper edge of lever 47 (Fig. 1) to preclude rotation of the lever. Finger 56 may be formed as the upper end of a shaft 59 journalled in a suitable bearing 60 (Fig. 8) which may be fixed to the reservoir casing 42 or to any other part of the machine. The lower end of the shaft 5% is keyed to a link 61 on the opposite end of which a roller 62 is journalled. An elongated plate 65 is pivoted, as at 66, in the machine, and is formed, at the free end 67 thereof, with a cam surface adapted, when engaged by an article 12 positioned in a circumferential recess 25 of the rotating rotor 11, to rotate plate 65 toward shaft 5?. Plate 65 has an extended arm 68 which, on rotation of the plate 65 as just described, engages the roller 62 and thereby rotates the shaft 59, to thereby rotate latch finger 56 to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 8, clear of lever 47. The mechanism just described constitute a means to assure the operation of the plunger '44 to open aperture 43 only when an article 12' is positioned in a recess 25 atstation 40. If no article 12 is dlisposed in recess 25 at station 40, latch finger 56 will prevent rotation of the lever 47 as shown in full lines. As a further safety precaution a hand operated latch cam 79 may be provided, having a stub shaft 71 journalled in a suitable bearing (not shown) and having a handle 72 so that the operator, by manual rotation of the cam latch onto lever 47 may lock the lever 47 against rotation thereby maintaining the aperture 43 sealed .for suchperiod of time as he desires to prevent the flow of the material from the reservoir 42.

Reservoir 42 may be mounted in the machine in spaced relation to the rotor plate 11 by any suitable means as, for example, by providing an open boss 73 on said reservoir 42 adapted to slidably engage the standard 74 fixed to the machine 10. The position of the boss 73 on the standard and therefom the location of the reservoir discharge aperture 43 relative to the rotor 11 may be predetermined by the use of means to connect the boss 73 at the predetermined desired position on the standard 74; said means may comprise bolts 75 passing through the boss 73 and bearing against the standard 74. The connection between the lever 47 and rod 59 at 51 may be such that continued reciprocation of the rod 50 responsive to the continued rotation of the drive shaft 27 will not impose stress and strain on the parts 50, 47, 44 and 51. This and may be done by any suitable means, as for example,- by making the connection 51 of the rod 5% to the lever 47 an indirect one through the medium of an intermediate spring 76 (Fig. 1).

If desired, the machine may be provided with flame means 77 (Fig. 9) immediately past the material application station 4d, heat the top of article 12 and the material 41 depositedthereon, to apply said material smoothly to the top of the article 12.

Reservoir 42 The material 41 in reservoir 42 may be of any desired type with which the top of the article 12 is to be coated or with which the article 12 is to be filled. If it is a wax material that is normally hard or semi-hard at room temperature, heating means may be provided with suitable thermostatic and other controls connecting it to any suitable source of current. T o maintain the material 42 in relatively uniform consistency a mixing vane 33 may be positioned in the reservoir and secured to a shaft 84 connected as by the pulley $5 and driven belt 86 to a suitable motor-driven clutch means of any suitable construction (not shown) such that when the state of material 41 is such as to substantially resist rotation of mixing vane 83, the motor may continue operation without rotation of belt 86.

The article ejector station is generally indicated at (Fig. 6) and may comprise a deflector bar ltll fixed at 102 to the machine and having a free end 103 and projected into the path of rotation of the articles 12. As they approach station 101), said articles will be deflected by the end 103 of the bar 101 to move tangetially of the plate and onto the chute 104 which will guide the same onto the discharge belt 105 or the like. At the discharge station the articles may, instead of passing to the chute 104, pass through an automatic aligning device 106 which may comprise a pair of spaced plates 107, 108 fixed to the machine in spaced parallel relation and having pairs of spring urged registering fingers 109 connected thereto. The arrangement of the fingers 109 is such as will be noted from Fig. '7, that the articles 12 will be held in a straight-line orderly arrangement at the discharge station of the machine, facilitating their aligned removal for packaging purposes.

What is claimed is:

1. In a machine for applying a flowing material to the top of an article, a frame, a rotor plate, means to rotate said plate, a reservoir for said flowing material disposed at one station of said machine and having a nozzle for the discharge of said material, said nozzle being disposed in spaced relation to said plate, means engaging the plate and nozzle, synchronized with the rotation of said plate to open said nozzle and release said material so that the material will flow onto the tops of said articles as they are rotated into registry with said nozzle, said plate having circumferential recesses conformed to'the cross sectional configuration of said articles to receive the same circumferentially, and an article liftbar pivoted to the frame at a postiion adjacent the circumference of said plate a portion of said lift bar being conformed to the cross-sectional configuration of said articles, means to deposit the article onto the lift bar and means synchronized with the rotation of said plate to pivot the lift bar toward the plate so as to transfer the article from the lift bar into a recess in said plate.

2. In a machine for applying a flowing material to the top of an article, a rotor plate, means to position articles on said plate, means to move articles into said articlepositioning means on the plate, a reservoir for said flowing material disposed in spaced relation to said plate, said reservoir having a discharge nozzle disposed in line with the path of rotation of said article, and means in said reservoir normally closing said nozzle, comprising a plunger reciprocably mounted in said reservoir, for engagement with said nozzle and a lever fulcrumed on said reservoir, said plunger being connected to one end of said lever, a latch finger means for normally holding the finger in latching position across the second end of the lever to normally hold the plunger against the aperture to close the same and means engaging the latch finger, and disposed in the path of rotation of articles positioned on said plate so as to move the latch finger clear of said second end of the lever when said means engaged by the articles is engaged by said articles.

3. In a machine for applying a flowing material to the top of an article, as set forth in claim 1, means projecting into the path of rotation of the articles past said reservoir station to eject the same from the recess in said rotor plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,716,869 Strandt et al June 11, 1929 1,766,147 Roe June 24, 1930 1,796,279 ,Berg Mar. 17, 1931 2,706,589 Bingham Apr. 19, 1955 

